The problem with this site it's way too over-reactionary. We destroyed Georgia, mainly because we have IMO 2 of the best players in the world, at least tight 5 players. I tried telling everyone this but apparently people believe in James Slipper at TH and whilst Frost was excellent, he's a completely different player to Skelton in terms of skillset.
We were never going to win this and we aren't going to beat Wales either but when we have Skelton and Tupou fit... we can compete with the best.
The problem has been the complete fucking appalling management of the replacements. Why the fuck is Schoupp here instead of Gibbon or Sio? You cannot possibly tell me he puts us in a better chance to win than the others? He got destroyed in the last scrum. Would Sio have?
Why are we picking Pone and Tupou in the same squad when they're both so injury prone? We need a balance. HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes) (Harry Johnson-Holmes) would've done a better job, or at least Zane should've gotten more minutes in the previous matches.
Why can't we replace Skelton? Well this goes deeper, we should've had Meafou playing for us but we need the biggest like for like replacement to go behind our TH in the scrum. Neville? Why didn't we call-up Tom Staniforth? He's of the best TH locks in France. Massive scrummager and huge ruck shifter. I've defended him but Richie Arnold has been a failure.
How many fucking times do we need to get exposed by having a midget 7 at Test level the last 2 years it's going to sink in the game's moved on? I don't know if Gleeson is the answer but could we at least test it out? Kemeny? When's the last time we won a breakdown battle like Fiji did today albeit helped immensely by Brace.
And don't get me fucking started on the Gordon Carter disaster - gee who could've see this coming. It's like I almost predicted it to a tee except it wasn't supposed to happen against Fiji and now for all of Eddie's chat about backing the young gun he's fucking destroyed him.
Eddie's lost the plot but we all knew this.
That is all just rearranging deck chairs on the titanic.
You single out Slipper for a match in which he was absolutely fine. If he'd not played TH then we'd have been smashed on that side instead of LH, zero sum game there.
Isn't HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes) also quite injury prone? More semantics.
The Meafou thing happened years ago, no use getting angry about it now. Staniforth has never been close to being selected for the Wallabies and this coaching staff couldn't reasonably be expected to develop him in time for this world cup. Agree though the Richie thing is strange, though he had wraps on him just like Staniforth.
Gleeson has been tried for mixed results. I think he's a great player but I doubt he'd have made a massive difference against Fiji. Agree that the Kemeny selection in the squad is strange.
On Gordon, realistically before the weekend he looked far and away the best 10 in Gold this year. Your guy has played like shit for 7 years so not sure what you're advocating honestly. Pick not the form player? Pick the player that has proven himself to no longer be up to it?
The result on Monday perfectly reflects the quality of the competition and administration that the group of players have been developed in. Changing 13 players every few weeks hasn't worked yet and won't any time soon.
Also, on injuries, I think it's pretty clear that our horror run over the last 3 coaches is because they feel they have to do way more s&c in Wallaby camp than usual because they aren't fit enough. That's another factor of our administration and competition not being fit for purpose any more, which I'm sure you'd agree with.